20th Century
Timeline *'1900': Joan Redfern's husband is shot and killed at the Battle of Spion Kop. (DW: Human Nature) *'1901': **Jack Harkness, who has been buried alive under Cardiff since 27 AD, is recovered by Alice Guppy and the Torchwood Cardiff team when they receive a signal from a transmitter hidden on Jack by John Hart. In order to avoid a paradox from meeting his younger self, Jack requests to be cryopreserved until he catches up to his proper timeline in 2009. (TW: Exit Wounds) **Queen Victoria dies on the Isle of Wight. (Known history) *'1902': The Doctor and Martha Jones visit Balmoral and discover that Balmoral Castle has been removed by the Judoon. (NSA: Revenge of the Judoon) *'1906': The Doctor, Georgia Bell and Conner Bennet travelled to Norway, where they stopped Rack from killing Little Red Riding Hood to fufill a prophecy. (DW: Angels and Demons) *'1908': The Tunguska Scroll is recovered in the Tanguska Basin in Russia. (SJA: Enemy of the Bane) *'1909': **Jack Harkness is the only survivor when his men are killed by fairies in Lahore. (TW: Small Worlds) **The Doctor and Martha Jones fight Zygons in the Lake District. (NSA: Sting of the Zygons) *'1910': Captain Scott leaves Cardiff for an expedition to the Antarctic. It would take him two years to get there. Tommy Brockless, then 16, would later recall that all the papers were covering the story. (TW: To the Last Man) *'1912': **The ocean liner RMS Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England. The Daniels family, following a warning delivered by a mysterious friend known only as the Doctor, cancel their plans to embark on the ship. A photograph of the Daniels and the Doctor later comes into Clive Finch's posession. (DW: Rose) The Doctor later remarks that he was on board the Titanic, and ended up clinging to an iceberg, that 'wasn't half cold'. (DW: The End of the World) **The ocean liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sinks. (Known history) *'1913': **The Family of Blood arrives in England, on the trail of the Doctor, who has disguised himself as human schoolteacher John Smith. (DW: Human Nature/ The Family of Blood) **The Doctor and Katie Parker travel to England for Pancakes and stop Mary Poppins. (DW: Pancakes) **The Nemesis statue passes Earth. (DW: Silver Nemesis) *'1914': **World War I breaks out. (Known history) **Charlie Chaplin begins his film career in Hollywood; nearly a century later, Donna Noble expresses a desire to visit him with the Doctor. (DW: Journey's End) **The Tenth Doctor visits the battlefields of the First World War in Belgium twice, once with Rose Tyler and once with Daniel Francis Thompson. (DWAM: Warfreekz!, Deep and Dreamless Sleep) *'1915': In John Smith's possible future, he marries Joan Redfern in this year. (DW: The Family of Blood) *'1918': **World War I fighting ends with a ceasefire. (Known history) **Gerald Carter and Harriet Derbyshire investigate a temporal phenomena as part of Torchwood Three in Cardiff. (TW: To the Last Man) *'1919': **World War I officially ends with the Treaty of Versailles. (Known history) **Harriet Derbyshire of Torchwood Three is killed (reasons unknown). (TW: To the Last Man) *'1920': **the Doctor returns to Farringham with Georgia Bell and Conner Bennet and is helped by Joan Redfern to defeat Petr Costravalos and the Scarecrows. (DW: A Study in the Straw) **The Doctor returns to Sir Henry Everton's house with Georgia Bell and Conner Bennet, where they are attacked by a Space Chicken. (DW: Crystal Glare) **Kathy Nightingale, having been touched by the Weeping Angels in 2007, is transported to Hull on this date. Trapped for good, she proceeds to establish a new life for herself, eventually marrying Ben Wainwright and raising a family. (DW: Blink) *'1926': The Doctor and Donna Noble meet Agatha Christie; she goes missing for the next ten days, before being found in a Hotel in Harrogate. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp) *'1928': The Doctor visits and Indian Jungle with Georgia Bell and Conner Bennet, and discover a ticklish monster. (DW: Jungle Journey) *'1930': Due to the onset of the Great Depression, New York City's Central Park houses one of several tent cities called Hooverville, inhabited by the unemployed and homeless. Remnants of the Cult of Skaro, having escaped to this year from the Battle of Canary Wharf begin abducting people in hopes of creating a Dalek-human hybrid. (DW: Daleks in Manhattan/ Evolution of the Daleks) *'1932': **The Ritz dance club opens in Cardiff. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) **Odd Bob the Clown (alias the Pied Piper) starts an eight year period of abducting children while traveling across America. (SJA: The Day of the Clown) *'1933': Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany. (Known history) *'1934': The mystery novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie is first published. Although she has no recollection of her adventure with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble in 1926, she unconsciously remembers the plot idea and title given to her by Donna. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp) *'1938': **Nancy gives birth to Jamie. Being an unwed teenaged mother, she pretends that Jamie is her little brother. (DW: The Empty Child) **The Nemesis statue passes Earth. (DW: Silver Nemesis) *'1939': World War II breaks out. (Known history) *'1940': The last in an eight year series of child abductions by the Pied Piper occurs in America. (SJA: The Day of the Clown) *'1941': **Jack Harkness and Toshiko Sato meets the real Jack Harkness at The Ritz. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) **The Doctor traces a mauve alert signal to London, where he finds a sinister child wearing a gas mask, and meets Captain Jack Harkness. (DW: The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances) **Bilis Manger contacts Tilda Brennan and indicates that she follow the instructions in File TW3/87/BM. Jack Harkness returns to the Hub to find the personnel of Torchwood Three incapacitated by Tilda Brennan, who is shot dead when the Light gives up possession of her body. The Light use the diary of Gideon Tarry to take the body of Greg Bishop. (TWN: The Twilight Streets) *'1945': **Adolf Hitler dies. (Known history) **World War II ends. (Known history) **The Cold War begins. (Known history) *'1947': **The Doctor and Donna Noble arrive in India. (NSA: Ghosts of India) **A spacecraft crashes in Roswell, New Mexico. (DW: Dreamland) Its technology ends up in the hands of Henry Van Statten, who uses it to develop broadband internet. (DW: Dalek) *'1948': The Doctor attends the Summer Olympic Games (held in London) - twice he enjoyed it so much. (DW: Fear Her) *'1951': **Birth of Sarah Jane Smith. (SJA: Secrets of the Stars, SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith) **Eddie and Barbara, parents of Sarah Jane Smith, die in a car accident. (SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith) *'1953': **Queen Elizabeth II is crowned at Westminster in London, an event the Wire attempts to exploit by absorbing the identities of everyone watching the event on live television. The Doctor stops and traps her. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) **The airplane Sky Gypsy vanishes. It actually time travels to 2007. (TW: Out of Time) **Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart begins his military career. (DW: Mawdryn Undead) *'1954': Birth of Rose Tyler's father Pete. (DW: Father's Day) *'1956': Elvis Presley makes his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing "Hound Dog" among other songs. The Doctor and Rose Tyler attempt to travel to this date to view this event, but end up being detoured to 1953 London. (DW: The Idiot's Lantern) *'1959': Edgar Nelson-Stanley and his wife Bea Nelson-Stanley killed one of the three Gorgons. (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon) *'1962': **A Dalek soldier, last survivor of the Last Great Time War between its race and the Time Lords, falls through time and crashes like a meteorite "on the Ascension Islands.". The Dalek lies in its burning crater for three days, screaming the entire time, before it is retrieved. Its weapon systems inactive and its outer armor heavily damaged, the Dalek is sold at private auction and passes through several hands over the next 50 years. (DW: Dalek) **Benjamin Wainwright, husband of time-displaced Kathy Nightingale, dies. (DW: Blink) *'1963': **Lizzie Lewis is murdered by Ed Morgan. (TW: Ghost Machine) **The Kennedy assassination takes place, witnessed by the Ninth Doctor. (DW: Rose) **In the Shoreditch area of London, Coal Hill School teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, following Susan Foreman home from the school, discover the Doctor's TARDIS in 76 Totter's Lane. Fearing the consequences, the Doctor abducts them. (DW: An Unearthly Child) **The Nemesis statue passes Earth. (DW: Silver Nemesis) *'1964': **Maria Jackson breaks free of the Trickster's Graske servant and arrives in this date. A few minutes after, 13 year old Sarah Jane Smith's best friend Andrea Yates falls off a pier and drowns. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?) **In a timeline created by the Trickster, Sarah Jane Smith drowns and Andrea Yates lives. (SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?) *'1965': The British government is contacted by an alien race dubbed the 456, who demand one dozen children in exchange for an anti-virus for an influenza outbreak that will otherwise kill millions. Jack Harkness of the Torchwood Institute is ordered to deliver a busload of children from an orphanage in Scotland. One child, Clement MacDonald, somehow escapes and ends up on the run, destined to spend the next 45 years in asylums. The children delivered, the anti-virus is provided, and the flu outbreak is quelled. (TW: Children of Earth) *'1966': **Birth of Peri Brown, companion of the Doctor in his fifth and sixth incarnations. (DW: Planet of Fire) **The Doctor and Rose Tyler visit London. (DWM: The Love Invasion) *'1967': Jackie Tyler is born. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen) *'1968': **Jack Harkness is present for the Parisian student riots. (TWM: The Book of Jahi) **The United Nations have by this time established protocols for first contact with alien life. (DW: The Sound of Drums) *'1969': **The Doctor, Martha Jones and Billy Shipton are touched by the Weeping Angels and end up in this time. Working with future information given to him by Sally Sparrow, the Doctor contacts Shipton and the now-elderly Kathy Nightingale and arranges for messages to be passed on to Sparrow in 2007, one of which is a recorded message by the Doctor. (DW: Blink) **Neil Armstrong walks on the Moon. (Known history) Martha Jones later claimed that she and the Doctor viewed the event several times. (DW: Blink) *'1970': **Ace, companion of the Seventh Doctor, is born in England. (DW: Ghost Light) **Mary kills Myra Bennett in order to consume her heart. Human authorities do not manage to catch her. (TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts) *'1974': The Doctor and Lucie Miller arrive in England at a service station on the M62 sometime in the winter. (BFA: Horror of Glam Rock) *'1975': On Earth, the introduction of the Betamax videotape recording system officially launches the home video era, although the VHS tape, released in 1976, would ultimately become the dominant home video format for the next 25 years. Among those interested in the new industry is time-displaced Billy Shipton who, acting on instructions received from the Doctor years earlier, enters into the video publishing industry in preparation for his ultimate involvement in DVD authoring decades later. (DW: Blink) *'1976': Agatha Christie dies; at some point before her death, she is visited by the Doctor and Donna Noble, who remind her of the cirumstances surrounding her disappearance in the 1920s. (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp) *'1977': Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee is celebrated in the United Kingdom. (DW: Mawdryn Undead) *'1979': **Margaret Thatcher leads the UK Conservative Party to power in the general election. (Known history) **The US space station Skylab returns to Earth, with a little help from the Doctor. (DW: Tooth and Claw) **Ian Dury and the Blockheads perform in concert at Sheffield, England. The Doctor attempts to take Rose Tyler to this concert when they instead end up in 1879 Scotland. (DW: Tooth and Claw) **Rose Tyler may have attended a concert by ABBA at Wembley Stadium in London. (DW: Attack of the Graske) *'1980': Dr. Owen Harper, Torchwood Three operative, is born. (TW: Exit Wounds) *'1982': **Pete Tyler marries Jackie Prentice (who becomes Jackie Tyler). (DW: Father's Day) **On 'Pete's World' Cybus Industries is founded. (DW: Rise of the Cybermen/ The Age of Steel) *'1983': Ianto Jones is born, probably in Cardiff. (TW: Fragments) *'1984': **H.C. Clements is bought by the Torchwood Institute. (DW: The Runaway Bride) **Martha Jones is born. (DW: Smith and Jones) *'1987': **Kathy Costello Wainright (aka Nightingale) writes a letter to her friend Sally Sparrow, entrusting her grandson to deliver it (along with a package of photographs) to Sparrow in the year 2007. (DW: Blink) **Death of Kathy Costello Wainright née Nightingale. (DW: Blink) **Birth of Rose Tyler, companion of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. (DW: Rose, Aliens of London) **Pete Tyler is killed when he is struck by a vehicle while crossing the road en route to a friend's wedding. This event is witnessed by Rose Tyler and Ninth Doctor|the Doctor]]. Initially Pete dies alone before help could arrive. Rose prevents him from being killed, which results in a dangerous paradox. Ultimately, after spending some time with his now-grown daughter, Pete learns that in order for time to continue normally, he must die, so he walks in front of another vehicle. This time Rose is with him when he dies, and the fabric of time is altered so that the record shows Pete died as an unidentified woman knelt beside him. (DW: Father's Day) *'1998': **The Nemesis statue returns to Earth after 350 years. Lady Peinforte arrives to regain it. The Doctor uses it to destroy the Cyber-Fleet. (DW: Silver Nemesis) **Construction of One Canada Square begins as part of the Canary Wharf redevelopment project in London. Unknown to the general public, the building, destined to become the tallest office tower in the UK, is secretly known as the Torchwood Tower and is built to house the Torchwood Institute in an instance of "hiding in plain sight". (DW: Army of Ghosts/ Doomsday) *'1989': The Doctor suggests that Rose Tyler and he go to Marbella in this year to avoid the Daleks at the Battle of the Game Station. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) *'1991': **Construction of One Canada Square in London's Canary Wharf development is completed. Unknown to the general public, the building has been constructed to house the Torchwood Institute. (DW: Army of Ghosts/ Doomsday) **A three-inch steel protective wall was added to the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street (DW: World War Three) *'1992': Birth of Georgia Bell, companion of the Tenth Doctor. (DW : Georgia and the Magnet Warriors) *'1994': Birth of Zac Pemberton, companion of the Tenth Doctor. (DW: Conner) *'1995': **Birth of Kaylie Watson, companion of the Tenth Doctor. (DW: The Demon Headmaster) **Birth of Conner Bennet, companion of the Tenth Doctor. (DW: Conner) **On Earth, the DVD video format is finalised and within a few years would become the dominant home video entertainment format on the planet. Among those who subsequently became involved in DVD authoring is time-displaced Billy Shipton. (DW: Blink) *'1996': The novel Bridget Jones's Diary is published. In the 51st century it would be preserved in The Library. (DW: Silence in the Library) *'1997': The Torchwood Institute shoots down a Jathaa sunglider over the Shetland Islands. They begin to reverse-engineer its technology. (DW: Army of Ghosts) *'1999': **The Doctor lands in San Francisco and is caught in a gangland shooting. As the result of exploratory heart surgery meant to save him, he regenerates into his eighth incarnation, and prevents the Master from using the Eye of Harmony to destroy Earth. (DW: Doctor Who TV Movie) **While Jack Harkness fights a "Millennium Bug", Alex Hopkins kills the rest of his Torchwood Three team, then kills himself after Jack returns, just as the New Year arrives. (TW: Fragments)